McGorry urges short-term immigration detention

Australian of the Year Patrick McGorry says the Federal Government's decision to open two new immigration detention centres will be beneficial to the mental health of the detainees, as long as the period of detention is limited.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced last week the Government plans to establish a centre at Northam, near Perth, and another at Inverbrackie, east of Adelaide.

The Northam base will hold 1,500 people, and another 400 people will go to Inverbrackie.

Professor McGorry spoke at a forum in Perth last night, where he discussed the impact long-term detention can have on the mental health of asylum seekers.

He says it is impossible to expect asylum seekers to properly integrate into Australian society if their mental health is damaged from prolonged detention.

"They can't be effectively helped from a mental health point of view from an immigration detention [centre]," he said.

"I've worked in that setting and it's extremely difficult to provide any effective mental health care in that environment - it's like treating malaria in a swamp.

"So we're accepting people into our country for the future and we've damaged them. So we've hampered their abilities to contribute to our societies."

Professor McGorry says while he agrees with the Government's decision, it will not be helpful if asylum seekers are detained for long periods of time.

"I thought relocating detention centres onto the mainland was a good step, rather than trying to process people on offshore islands," he said.

"It's extremely difficult [offshore], expensive, [a] huge waste of money and you can't provide proper mental health care in those environments or any other kinds of health care really, apart from very simple things."